Pacific Feminist Imaginaries: The 1977 US National Women’s Conference and the Politics of Territorial Representation

In November 1977, approximately 20,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas for the National Women’s Conference (NWC), the first and only federally-funded convening charged with developing a national agenda of women’s issues. Inspired by the 1975 United Nations Conference on the Status of Women that was held in Mexico City as part of the International Women’s Year (IWY), the NWC represented an opportunity to reflect on the history, contemporary status, and future of women in the United States. Among the attendees were 2,000 delegates, elected from 56 pre-conferences held in each of the states and six territories. Just as the NWC made visible the persistent challenges for gender justice, the existence of US territories reveals the ossified status of colonies within a self-proclaimed democratic nation. What emerged from these Pacific territorial meetings of the NWC reveals the conflicted politics of women’s empowerment as islanders challenged militarized patriarchy, reclaimed matrilineality, and called for island sovereignty. The 1977 NWC offers a window into these complex politics as women from the Pacific envisioned new possibilities for their future

The Experiences of Women of Color in WGSS Graduate Programs: An Open Discussion

Last year, The Ohio State University’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies began to discuss recruiting and retaining women of color in WGSS programs across the United States. This roundtable continues the conversation with junior faculty and graduate students of color and their allies, who will discuss their strategies to negotiate what it means to be women of color in WGSS departments/programs and how to effectively support women of color as colleagues/peers. While the experiences of women of color in the professoriate continue to proliferate, the voices of their successors in graduate school are unheard. Yet, these women’s voices must be located within a broader discussion of the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality in the academy. By centering the lived realities of this current generation of scholars, this roundtable will examine the success and failures to sustain a commitment to diversity and inclusivity throughout the graduate school experience. They will discuss their research interests, effective mentoring strategies, and offer advice about how to better support women of color. In addition, the roundtable invites other women of color junior faculty and graduate students to share best practices for departments, programs, and allies to retain students of color. The roundtable also encourages WGSS departments to share their strategies to engage and support students of color

Care during COVID-19: A Virtual Asian American and Pacific Islander Photovoice Project

The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with rising anti-Asian rhetoric and violence fostered by government leadership. The Visualizing Our Identities and Cultures for Empowerment project based at the University of California, Irvine trained student researchers in the photovoice methodology to document the experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Described as “ethical photography for social change,” photovoice seeks to democratize knowledge production and to enact social justice. This approach of community participatory action research and community-centered archival creation could serve as a model for other Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions that embrace the mission of “service” as well as “empowerment” and “care” for marginalized communities